The Importance of Tea and Cookies

I remember sitting with the Dalai Lama and he had a little thermos next to him. He had been debating the sutras. He poured himself some tea and we all fixed our eyes upon his cup as he started swirling it. He must have swirled it for what seemed like a year and a half. It was probably only thirty seconds.
A lot of thoughts go through your brain when you are watching such a wise one swirl his tea. Then he stopped swirling and he took a sip. He said: “I have been at this place many times in the debate of this sutra and every time I get here, all I want to do is run and eat a cookie”.

The next time I was with him, we were greeting each other out in front of the auditorium in Seattle at the Seeds of Compassion festival.

The secret service agents were standing between him and us . . . he turned around and saw my wife and I and threw up his arms and came walking towards us. The secret service noticed he wasn't staying where he was supposed to so they turned around and looked and saw my wife and I and then turned back and looked at him and he had this beaming grin on his face so they parted like the Red Sea. As we hugged, I said in his ear: “I think the secret service needs a cup of tea and maybe a cookie”.

He sprung back from the embrace and looked me in the eyes and said: “You remember stories well, don't you?”